IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 848

ON LOVE; PART XDXXXVII

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GoodWill IS Love in Action

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The Gospel of Thomas

These are the hidden words that the living Jesus spoke. And Didymos Judas Thomas wrote them down.

(63) Jesus says: “There was a rich person who had many possessions. He said: ‘I will use my possessions so that I might sow, reap, plant, (and) fill my storehouses with fruit so that I will not lack anything.’ This was what he was thinking in his heart. And in that night he died. Whoever has ears should hear.“

(64) Jesus says: “A person had guests. And when he had prepared the dinner, he sent his servant, so that he might invite the guests. He came to the first (and) said to him: ‘My master invites you.’ He said: ‘I have bills for some merchants. There are coming to me this evening. I will go (and) give instructions to them. Excuse me from the dinner.’ He came to another (and) said to him: ‘My master has invited you.’ He said to him: ‘I have bought a house, and I have been called (away) for a day. I will not have time.’ He went to another (and) said to him: ‘My master invites you.’ He said to him: ‘My friend is going to marry, and I am the one who is going to prepare the meal. I will not be able to come. Excuse me from the dinner.’ He came up to another (and) said to him: ‘My master invites you.’ He said to him: ‘I have bought a village. Since I am going to collect the rent, I will not be able to come. Excuse me.’ The servant went away. He said to his master: ‘Those whom you invited to the dinner have asked to be excused.’ The master said to his servant: ‘Go out on the roads. Bring (back) whomever you find, so that they might have dinner.’ Dealers and merchants (will) not enter the places of my Father.“

(65) He said: “A [usurer] owned a vineyard. He gave it to some farmers so that they would work it (and) he might receive its fruit from them. He sent his servant so that the farmers might give him the fruit of the vineyard. They seized his servant, beat him, (and) almost killed him. The servant went (back and) told his master. His master said: ‘Perhaps <they> did not recognize <him>.’ He sent another servant, (and) the farmers beat that other one as well. Then the master sent his son (and) said: ‘Perhaps they will show respect for my son.’ (But) those farmers, since they knew that he was the heir of the vineyard, seized him (and) killed him. Whoever has ears should hear.“

(66) Jesus says: “Show me the stone that the builders have rejected. It is the cornerstone.“

(67) Jesus says: “Whoever knows all, if he is lacking one thing, he is (already) lacking everything.“

In the last essay we concluded our thoughts on the sixty fifth and the sixty sixth sayings from the Gospel of Thomas which we will summarize somewhat here today. We had noted that these two sayings are linked together by many from the perspective of the synoptic gospels where they the ideas of the sixty sixth are considered a part of the Parable of the Wicked Husbandman. We however do not see the specific link as to say that they are one parable but, at the same time, we do recognize the similarity of the theme from our own perspective. Doctrine generally sees the ideas of the first part, the story of the husbandmen in the vineyard, as a sort of history and a prediction of the Jew’s view of the Truth of God; that they killed the prophets and will kill the Son, the Master, so as to keep their own ways; and they see the second part as a simple idea that in killing the Master as they do, that He is the stone that is rejected and which becomes the cornerstone. We noted that the idea of cornerstone is not certain and that some see this as the capstone and our thought here is that it makes little difference, at least from our view of the meaning of both of these sayings. In the view of doctrine the idea of the cornerstone works best and, although this IS NOT the True rendering of the word, it is used in most doctrine and, as we noted, there is many a church that has taken this idea of the cornerstone as its name.

Our view of this is the more spiritual view as in our understanding there is always an enduring message in the Master’s words and there is none of value that we can see in the doctrinal approach. Remembering that this IS a parable, we see spiritual meanings behind each of the ideas presented:

• The householder, or the owner of the vineyard according to Thomas, IS the Soul; it is the Soul that plants the vineyard as the Life of the man in the world.
• The vineyard IS as we note above the Life of the man in the world, a Life that is separated from the Soul and from the sense of God.
• The husbandmen or the farmers are the carnal self, the personality of the man in the world, his mental, emotional and physical states of being, which are given charge of the vineyard which IS the Life of the man in the world.
• The fruit is the righteous thoughts, attitudes and actions that are to be returned to the householder, the treasures of the heart if you will. Here we can view again the Master’s words on this treasure as He tells us: “A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things” (Matthew 12:35). The householder IS of course seeking the good treasure, the good fruit and in the story here the husbandmen are producing evil fruit, fruit that is not suitable for the householder.
• The servants who are sent to get the fruits for the householder are the promptings of the Soul, the Soul’s requests for the good fruit of the Life of the man in the world, the good fruit of the vineyard.
• The beatings and the killings are the refusal of the husbandmen to give to the householder the good fruit and we should try to read here in the tenor of the Master’s words that the vineyard has not produced good fruit and that the husbandmen are cultivating the evil fruit to serve themselves and their worldly focus.
• The son then is the final appeal of the householder to the husbandmen to give of the good fruit and should be seen  as an omen than as well as a factual idea of the story; an omen that in the continued production of only the evil fruit, the fruit for the self in the world, that the Soul, the householder, we cease asking; he will cease prompting the man to the Good, the Beautiful and the True from this Life of the man in the world.

Now there ARE some choppy ideas here but they are no more choppy that the doctrinal ideas where certain assumptions are made as to who the servants are and what IS the nature of the fruit itself and we should note here again that from our perspective there IS NO enduring spiritual message in this doctrinal understanding of this parable. We should try here to see that the ending verse of the synoptic versions is one that must be understood spiritually as well; here, in most any interpretation of these words we must see the spiritual import of the idea of the householder, that this IS God or, as we see this, the God Within. According to Matthew the Master tells us: “They say unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons” (Matthew 21:41) and in this is the destruction of men which IS NOT in the scope of our God of Love; our God who IS Love. Here, even if one would point to the sacking of Jerusalem in AD 70, he should see that this IS NOT an act of God but an act of men caused by a political revolt. The greater reality is in seeing the Truth of reincarnation here as the Life of the man in the world with these the husbandman who refuse to garner the good fruits of this Life for the Soul, can be seen as spiritually ended and from there the Lord of the vineyard the householder, looks to the next opportunity when the husbandmen will be new and different.

Here in this parable the good fruits are the righteous thoughts, attitudes and actions of the Life of the man in the world as cultivated by a conscious personality that IS focused upon the things of God and this same idea can be carried to the next saying or the next part regarding the stone. If we can see this fruit as the stone and understand that this fruit or stone or whatsoever one chooses to call this righteousness is generally rejected by the personality Life of the man in the world, then we should see as well that this righteousness, this fruit, IS the capstone and it IS the cornerstone of the True Life of the man in the world; this IS his spiritual reality; while the personality rejects this stone, it IS indeed the crowning glory of any Life in this world. We have spent much time on this parable as here was the opportunity to clearly depict the differences between the carnal view and the spiritual and while what we say may seem to some a stretch, it is not; it is merely a cogent attempt to bring the Master’s words into the spiritual realm in which they ARE intended to be.

Our next saying, the sixty seventh, is a rather obscure saying that has no apparent match in the accepted gospels. There are several different ideas offered in the different renderings of this saying as here we present our normal spectrum of translations:

• Jesus said: “He who knows the all, (but) fails (to know) himself, misses everything” (Blatz).
• Jesus said, “If anyone should become acquainted with the entirety and should fall short of all (?), that person falls short utterly” (Layton).
• Jesus says: “He who knows the All, but has failed to know himself, has failed completely to know, <or: to find> the Place!” (Doresse).
• Jesus said, “If one who knows the all still feels a personal deficiency, he is completely deficient” (Lambdin).
• Jesus says: “Whoever knows all, if he is lacking one thing, he is (already) lacking everything” (Patterson and Robinson)
• Jesus said, “Those who know all, but are lacking in themselves, are utterly lacking” (Patterson and Meyer).
• Said-JS62 this: “He-who-knows the-all-of-it, if-he-needs himself, needs the-place, all-of-it” (Interlinear Version).

Looking at the words from the Interlinear, we can see the relative difficulty in rendering these ideas into a saying in English and why there IS such variation in the ideas of these translators. The commentary on this saying includes:

• Robert M. Grant and David Noel Freedman write: “This saying is incomprehensible. Presumably Jesus is ‘the All,’ and ‘everywhere’ is where Jesus is, as in Saying 77. If – as is most uncertain – the saying is related to Jesus’ words to Martha in Luke 10:41, ‘There is need of few things or of one,’ it would mean that to know Jesus is all that the believer needs. Perhaps the saying was garbled during transmission.” (The Secret Sayings of Jesus, p. 173).
• R. McL. Wilson writes: “Logion 67 Grant and Freedman, using a different translation, found incomprehensible, and they suggest that it may have been garbled in the transmission. The clue, however, had already been provided by Dr. Till, who after observing ‘For him who wants to be saved it is necessary above all to recognize the vanity of the material world,’ and quoting sayings to that effect, continues ‘It is by no means sufficient to know the worthlessness of the material world. The indispensable perfection of knowledge is knowing oneself. For even “he who knows all the universe but does not know himself has missed everything”.'” (Studies in the Gospel of Thomas, p. 28).
• Funk and Hoover write: “This saying is as difficult to translate as it is to understand. The first clause may refer simply to one who is very knowledgeable – a know-it-all. In this case, the saying recalls the famous dictum of Socrates, ‘Know thyself.’ However, the word for ‘all’ is also a technical term in gnostic circles and refers to the whole of cosmic reality; it is usually translated as ‘All,’ with a capital A. Elsewhere in Thomas this term seems to carry this technical sense (note 2:4 and 77:1). The Fellows took the term here to be technical gnostic language also. They gave it a black designation as the result. Thomas 70 is a related saying.” (The Five Gospels, p. 512).
• Gerd Ludemann gives the translation, “Jesus said, ‘Whoever knows the All (but) is deficient in himself is deficient in everything.'” Ludemann writes: “The ‘All’ is a technical term which relates to the universe, embracing the earth and the cosmos (cf. 2.4; 77.1). ‘Know’ takes up the same expression from 65.4, 7. According to Thomas, knowledge of the All and self-knowledge condition each other. The reason lies in the consubstantiality of the All with the Gnostic self. Thus according to Logion 77 Jesus is the light and at the same time the All. Whoever knows himself is Christ and himself becomes a person of light.” (Jesus After 2000 Years, p. 624).

Here in these commentaries there is an actual attempt by some to give some interpretation to this most obscure saying from the Master. From our perspective the rendering presented by Blatz is the closer to what we see as the intent of the Interlinear and as such, we will use Blatz rendering: “He who knows the all, (but) fails (to know) himself, misses everything” as our working understanding of this saying. Here we must surmise what the idea of the all means and we can discount the ideas in the commentary that this is a Gnostic technical term that relates to the Universe or even cosmic reality, this would necessarily include one’s knowledge of himself from most ALL perspectives. Here again we should see that in understanding the all that there should be some practical spiritual lesson, some message of Truth, that one can use to help his own spiritual progression; that this would not be locked into some Gnostic idea only. Here we can try to see the idea that the one KNOWING the all is KNOWING the all of the ways of himself in the world and that this IS NOT sufficient to Truly understand Life and to progress spiritually. The Apostle Paul makes this dichotomy of Life the subject of parts of his Second Epistle to the Corinthians where we read:

• “Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in his presence” (2 Corinthians 1:20-29). Can we see that in this idea of knowing the all, or as the Interlinear frame the “the all of it” that this IS the “wisdom of this world“; here Paul tells us that “not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called” and that it IS in this idea of being called that we find the man who KNOWS himself, his True self, and that it is he that realizes “the power of God, and the wisdom of God“. The message here from Paul and the message from the Master in Thomas’ Gospel are the same; one can KNOW ALL of the world and that this is but the  “foolish things of the world” which do by their very nature “confound the wise“; that is the wise in the ways of the world. The Master tells us in the Blatz rendering that this man who IS wise in the things of the world without KNOWING himself, his True self “misses everything“.
• “For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (2 Corinthians 2:11-14). Here again we have the similar ideas and if we can see that this first part is in reference to the Master’s idea that a man KNOWING himself is to do so from a spiritual perspective and that short of this KNOWING in the Spirit one WILL NOT KNOW the things of the Spirit which “the Holy Ghost teacheth“; that the man in the world who KNOWS the all in the world only IS the “natural man” and this man “receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned“; this man then “misses everything“.
• “Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain” (2 Corinthians 3:18-20). Here again we have the similar ideas presented by Paul that should serve to amplify and clarify this idea from the Master according to Thomas. Here again is the point that to KNOW the things of the world, “the all of it” in our saying above, is but deception; this is the nature of the self in the world. However to KNOW one’s self, one’s True self, is to follow in His words and it is in this that a man becomes Truly Wise.

Can we see the point of this saying from the Master in these ideas from the apostle?

We will continue with our thoughts in the next post.

Aspect of God	Potency	Aspect of Man	In Relation to the Great Invocation	In relation to the Christ
GOD, The Father	Will or Power	Spirit or Life	Center where the Will of God IS KNOWN	Life
Son, The Christ	Love and Wisdom	Soul or Christ Within	Heart of God	Truth
Holy Spirit	Light or Activity	Life Within	Mind of God	Way

Note on the Quote of the Day

This daily blog also has a Quote of the Day which may not be in any way related to the essay. Many of these will be from the Bible and some just prayers or meditations that may have an influence on you and are in line with the subject matter of this blog. As the quote will change daily and will not store with the post, it is repeated in this section with the book reference and comment.

As the Lord’s Prayer is given to us by the Christ for our use 2000 years ago, the Great Invocation, according to esoteric sources, was give from Him as well and whether we believe that this IS True or not we should look at this prayer as containing the same selfless invocative style as does the Lord’s Prayer and then any that are modeled after their style. We again encourage ALL to read and reread this Great Invocation and our comments as in these words can be found keys to our spiritual reality.

From the point of Light within the Mind of God
Let light stream forth into the minds of men.
Let Light descend on Earth.

From the point of Love within the Heart of God
Let love stream forth into the hearts of men.
May Christ return to Earth.

From the centre where the Will of God is known
Let purpose guide the little wills of men–
The purpose which the Masters know and serve.

From the centre which we call the race of men
Let the Plan of Love and Light work out
And may it seal the door where evil dwells.

This prayer is a part of our Prayers and Meditations section and there is much information about it there and in our discussion of it in the Quote of the Day section of In the Words of Jesus parts 128-132

The above Invocation or Prayer does not belong to any person or group but to all Humanity. The beauty and the strength of this Invocation lies in its simplicity, and in its expression of certain central truths which all men, innately and normally, accept—the truth of the existence of a basic Intelligence to Whom we vaguely give the name of God; the truth that behind all outer seeming, the motivating power of the universe is Love; the truth that a great Individuality came to earth, called by Christians, the Christ, and embodied that love so that we could understand; the truth that both love and intelligence are effects of what is called the Will of God; and finally the self-evident truth that only through humanity itself can the Divine Plan work out.

Like the Lord’s Prayer, this invocation is a World Prayer which is as all that a prayer is intended to be. It is a prayer for the uplifting of the Human Family out of the mire of materialism and selfishness. The Lord’s Prayer asks nothing for the individual praying it but asks that its benefits be for US and for WE which is why it was given by the Christ as a prayer and as a model over 2000 years ago. This invocation is also attributed to the Christ who, as He promised, has never left us; He, through channels that we do not readily understand, has Himself instructed His disciples to distribute this prayer and to encourage its use as a world prayer and as an aid in preparing the world for His return.

The first three stanzas of this prayer should be understood as reflecting the effective potencies of the Trinity which is God and which, when brought down to an individual level, the Trinity which is Man. His Will, His Love and His Light we should seen as the Potent Powers of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Let the peace of God rule in your hearts!

• ¹⁴ The Gospel of Thomas; Translated by Stephen J. Patterson and James M. Robinson; http://gnosis.org/